As I sat here a few moments ago, eating a Yoplait Light Very Cherry yogurt, I realized that, since going on my healthy eating kick last summer (still losing weight slowly!), that I've quite happily found a bunch of newly-discovered things that really make my tastebuds happy... and there are some things which are long-time faves that I've been jonesing for a lot lately. In honor of that, I did a wee bit of searching for some images online to illustrate, and voila... I hereby present you with:

THINGS THAT MAKE MY MOUTH HAPPY!

What makes your mouth happy? What's your most favorite thing to eat (or drink) lately?

My mom asked me on the phone yesterday if I had done anything crafty or any designing lately. And I told her that I hadn't. And then I went on to tell her that I was okay with that.

So after we got off the phone, I started thinking about it more. Being okay with not doing anything lately. I think I got a bit burned out with my design schedule the past few years, and I just need to take a little break, really. But the Type A Personality side of me kept kicking me in the head and telling me that I need to do stuff. Design stuff. Create stuff.

To be honest, I like it better when the Design Muse does that. Gets me going and doing because I want to. Not because I feel I have to. Not because I have to fill every moment of every day with work. But because my mojo is flowing and I WANT to.

It's been hard to get to the "it's okay" point. I've been having a lot of guilt feelings for sitting on the couch in the evening and taking some "me" time... watching TV, reading books or magazines, doing a Sudoku puzzle or five. Yes, I've been doing those things when I would normally be chained to my laptop, and it has felt gloriously wonderful. But gloriously wonderful with an asterisk, because there was a lot of guilt I was putting on myself too. I felt like I should be designing (read: working). Because that was the rut I'd gotten into over the past three years. So if I was doing something besides that, well, I should feel guilty, shouldn't I? So I did. Workaholic much?

But lately, say in the past week or two, I've lost the guilt. I've shed it like an old skin I no longer need. I've been okay with, even comfortable with, enjoying my evenings and weekends however I want to spend them. And, really, isn't that the way it should be? I spend enough of my day doing work!

So I'll design again when I feel like it. I know I will. But in the meantime, the guilt-free "me" time is really delicious. I needed this more than I realized. And I'm finally able to enjoy it: sans guilt. Hooray!

That's me (slacker), with relation to this blog. Just haven't been inspired to type anything here, and rather than babble aimlessly, mindlessly and other -essly words, I just have opted not to stop in. I know, I decided long ago I don't have to make excuses when I don't post here. It's my blog and I post whenever I feel like it. But just now realizing that I only posted nine times in January and only four times in February, well, I'm feeling slightly slacker-esque. In a "I don't feel guilty about it, just noticing a trend" sort of way.

We've been doing a lot of organizing and house cleaning and stuff at home of late. My living room actually looks so nice, sans the piles of stuff that had decided to move in there. I feel like I've been living an episode of "Mission Organization," that show on HGTV, lately. Self-induced and not to say that a lot of my stuff wasn't already really organized. No, actually, my endeavors the past month and a half have been re-organization. Putting stuff into places that make more sense. Getting rid of stuff I no longer need or use. I always get like this around this time of year, and I embrace it fully, because whatever I do now will have to get me through until this time next year.

I've been doing a LOT of reading lately. Which is a total favorite thing of mine to do, but I've managed to read all kinds of goodies (most of them pretty fluffy and lightweight, but this time of year, that's what I crave): this, this, this, this this, and the one I couldn't put down, High Crimes.

Yeah, click through to that last one. I'm a moutaineering/Everest junkie who has never done, nor harbors any secret desire to do, anything remotely like mountain climbing. I like to watch educational shows about and read books about this topic in the comfort and warmth of my home. I've been into this for years -- and I think my friends probably think I'm a little bit nuts for liking this stuff when I don't actually DO it. I'm more of an armchair mountaineer, really. I have to read "Into Thin Air" every year when it's cold outside -- it's my own little thing that I do when the temps start a'droppin' and the snow starts a'fallin'.

Well, imagine my complete and utter shock to find out that my music soulmate, Cathy Z, is also more than just a little bit obsessed with Everest and mountain climbing like I am. She too harbors no plans to EVER climb. After we both freaked out mightily (and decided we had to be separated at birth) for having this quite odd fascination in common (as if Neil Finn and scrapbooking weren't already enough) -- because, truly, I've never met another person with whom I can discuss this topic and who loves it like I do -- well, I sat back and wondered if any of my readers were into mountains too.

Anyone?

This is my Valentine. Isn't he cute? I'm so glad he's my husband!

I hope everyone has a great Valentine's Day! Any big plans? Mike and I are going to wait until Saturday night to go out to dinner.

My blog reader Lynn (yes, Lynn, we have the same middle name!) thinks I like tags! She is right. She tagged me, and who am I to not play along? Thus...

Here we go:

*You must post the rules before you give your answers.
*You must list one fact about yourself for each letter of your middle name.
*Each fact must begin with that letter.
*If you don't have a middle name, just use your maiden name.
*After you've been tagged, you need to update your blog with your middle name and answers.
*At the end of your post, you need to tag one person for each letter of your middle name. (Be sure to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and need to read your blog for details).

M - Music publicity = my day job.
A - Apple (with peanut butter) = what I had for lunch today.
R - ReZoned = a show on HGTV that I LOVE LOVE LOVE!
I - Industrious = I am nothing if not a very hard worker.
E - eBay = I cleaned out my bookshelves and have sold a TON of books on eBay the past three weeks.

Ok, now I have to tag five people:

1) Melissa
2) Robin
3) Melinda
4) Amy K
5) Jessica

Also, Robin sent me a link for the Sawyer Nickname Generator over the weekend. Mike and I had fun playing with it. I tried it twice and it gave me "Einstein" the first time and "Picasso" the second time. And when Mike did it, it gave him "Freebird." Rock 'n' roll! C'mon, if you watch "Lost," you have to try it. So much fun!

I've been tagged! My buddy Robin tagged me, so here we go!

1. Name your two favorite scrapbooking topics:
My family and myself.

2. Where are the two best places you’ve been to?
Scotland and Toronto.

3. Name two things you do every day:
Kiss my husband and tell him I love him, and check my email (although lately on weekends, I don't respond to emails).

4. Tell us two things that pretty much everyone knows about you:
I'm totally into all kinds of music. I am very tall.

5. Tell us two things that everyone DOESN’T know about you:
One, I spent a summer living in New York City in 1988 when I was still in college. It was for an internship program with the American Society of Magazine Editors. I interned at the trade magazine Engineering News Record. It was during that summer that I met my husband!

Two, I was in a sorority in college. For some reason, this surprises most everyone who meets me now!

6. Tell us two things that got you into the hobby of scrapping:
I did my first scrapbook (totally paper) after we went to Scotland in 1999. I wanted to document the trip. In January 2005, Melissa showed me a book on digital scrapbooking and that was it -- I've been hooked ever since.

7. Tell us two things that you want to accomplish in the next six months:
I want to practice photography and get better with working in manual settings. I'd like to finish writing my second book and really work on getting an agent to shop both books around for me.

8. Name your two favorite scrapping tools:
PhotoShop CS3 and my Crop-a-dile.

9. Name your two favorite sources of scrapping inspiration:
My friends and magazines like Somerset Studio, Cloth Paper Scissors, Scrapbooks Etc., Simple Scrapbooks, etc.

10. How has your scrapping changed since you started?
Well, when I started paper scrapping, there weren't many scrapbooking products out there. I really had to be extremely creative and make-do with what I could find and use things in interesting ways. I think my scrapping since going digi has become much more freestyle and artful.

11. What scrapbooking project have you yet to try but would love to?
Making a book that is just for me. I've made books for my mom and others, but I want to create something that is for me and me alone!

I will tag: Cathy Z, Becky, Erin, and Dara (Dara, you can do yours in the comments section if ya wanna!).

Ok, hands up who watched the Super Bowl last night???? Wow, what a game. I'm not a Giants fan usually -- actually I'm very odd in that I LOVE to watch football but do not have a favorite team. Doesn't really matter who is playing - I just like to watch it. All season, I was cheering for Brady and the Patriots since he was my quarterback in the fantasy football league I participated in. He kept scoring me crazy amounts of points, but I still came in sixth place out of ten (after winning first place last year - go figure!). Anyway, once fantasy football was over, my allegiance to him and that team was severed. And when the Giants made it to the final game, well, I had to root for the home team!

I've heard a few people say they thought the game was boring until the fourth quarter, but I disagree. Watching the Patriots not get it together and not gel and watching Brady's detached playing was interesting... it's almost like he wasn't in the game or something. And watching the Giants dismantle the Pats' offense was pretty exciting to me. I think the Giants played to win, played a better game overall, and they deserved to win the game, so I'm glad they did. I'm still trying to figure out how Tyree caught that pass... he just really wanted to hold onto that ball and anything he could do to maintain his grip on the ball (including using his helmet to keep it in his hand), he did it. And I'm convinced that they have Bradshaw training by pulling an entire train behind him because that guy would keep going and squeeze out every inch he could out of a play -- he would not go down without a fight.

I'll miss football now, until it returns next season.

The reason for my subject line today is because I woke up to a furnace that had stopped working! Yeah, it was 59 degrees in my house when I called the repair guys... who got here less than an hour after I called. Is that service or is that service? Turned out an outlet on it was wired wrong and tripped the entire furnace off, so they rewired it and it's toasty warm again in my house. Seriously, when I told Mike I was really cold this morning when I got out of bed, I didn't think anything of it because I'm always chilly when I wake up. But I couldn't seem to get warm, and that prompted me to think that a) I was getting sick or b) something was up with the heat. Good thing it was the latter, AND that it didn't cost me an arm and a leg to have it fixed, because I will have to have a plumber out sometime in the next month to do some much-needed work and I don't have money for both items!

We're off to a Devils hockey game tonight - first time checking out the new Prudential Center (aka The Rock) in Newark. Really looking forward to it! The best part? We don't have to drive! I can walk to the train station, take the train to Newark, meet Mike there, and we can walk together to the Arena. Can't beat that! And I get a good amount of exercise -- even better!